I was perplexed, then, at Fortune's recently concluded conference in Rome when more than one brainy participant made knowing references to "universal basic income." In case, like me, you aren't familiar with it, UBI is a flat payment to an entire population. The rationale is twofold. First, paying everyone a certain amount of money gives those with too little enough to get by. Second, such a payment is more efficient and effective than welfare, which by definition requires a costly administrative structure to work.

UBI has become a hot topic in tech, partly because it has been championed by leading lights in Silicon Valley, including the startup investor Y Combinator. It came up repeatedly in Rome because our task was to suggest specific actions the business world can take to ameliorate global poverty.

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Such a blunt-force approach is immensely appealing to libertarian-leaning thinkers in the technology industry. (Long before Silicon Valley became known for its political liberalism, its most important figures simply wanted government to leave them alone.) A skeptical review of Silicon Valley's love affair with UBI by Jathan Sadowski in The Guardian provides a counterpoint to the cheerleading on the topic. He sees selfish opportunism in the Valley's embrace of UBI, a way, for example, to pad the incomes of those scraping by in the so-called sharing economy.

"Why do the wealthy and elite support seemingly radical social programs?" he asks. "Have they grown enlightened and concerned with the plight of everyone else? Is this a mea culpa designed to make exploitation more bearable, a bit of comfort to soften the crushing pressure of life? Or is it a stealthy way for them to backdoor their own politics and values, while also protecting their positions in society?"

These are good questions, especially as the business world grapples with finding purpose in its important collective corporate mission.

]]>http://fortune.com/2016/12/07/silicon-valley-universal-basic-income/feed/0Fortune + Time Global Forum 2016Adam Lashinsky, Sr. Editor at Large3 Keys to Starting a Successful NGO From the World’s Most Effective Poverty Fighterhttp://fortune.com/2016/12/02/brac-fazle-hasan-abed-ngo/
http://fortune.com/2016/12/02/brac-fazle-hasan-abed-ngo/#respondFri, 02 Dec 2016 15:58:17 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=1872760]]>A cyclone in 1970 that killed hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh changed the course of Sir Fazle Hasan Abed’s life and the lives of the 140 million his anti-poverty organization has since reached.

At the time of the disaster, he saw bodies of men, women, and children floating in the shallow waters of a bay.

“That shocked me,” he said at the Fortune – Time Global Forum in Rome on Friday. “Suddenly, I thought the life I was leading had no meaning at all. I was so disconnected from the poor like this.”

The revelation prompted Abed to leave his job at Shell Oil and eventually start BRAC, now the largest non-governmental organization on the planet with over 110,000 employees and an institution that’s considered the world’s most effective at eradicating poverty.

BRAC started as a relief operation called the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee in 1972 to help the nation recover from the cyclone and its war of independence from Pakistan. It soon morphed into a larger effort to eliminate poverty and empower women through social and economic channels. Today, it has commercial enterprises like retail outlets, a dairy company, and a bank that help fund its development programs. Last year, Abed won the 2015 World Food prize for his "unparalleled" work on reducing poverty in Bangladesh and 10 other nations.

On the Global Forum stage, Abed reflected on his life’s work and shared what he says are the keys to a successful anti-poverty program. They boil down to:

Be ruthless in your targeting

Perfect the process

Scale

Most anti-poverty programs are “not designed well,” Abed said. “They don’t reach the poorest of the poor; they are not targeted properly. I think what is needed are small pilot projects to make it effective.” Then, he said, a leader must make the project efficient by converging essential tasks and cutting non-essential ones. The final step is to scale.

Abed also emphasized the importance of a program’s sustainability. (Eighty percent of BRAC’s $1 billion budget in Bangladesh is self-funded through its commercial enterprises; the rest comes from donors.) He cited research by a historian who examined 500 16th century institutions in Europe--only 33 of them survive today. Of those, 29 are universities.

This article has been updated to correct the number of people BRAC has reached and its current lineup of commercial enterprises.

]]>http://fortune.com/2016/12/02/brac-fazle-hasan-abed-ngo/feed/0A PIONEER: LESSONS FROM FOUR DECADES SERVING THE POORclairezillmanPope Francis Wants Business Leaders to Help Spread the Wealthhttp://fortune.com/2016/12/02/pope-francis-global-forum-poverty/
http://fortune.com/2016/12/02/pope-francis-global-forum-poverty/#respondFri, 02 Dec 2016 15:06:37 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=1872905]]>Good morning from Rome, where my Fortune and Time colleagues are hosting an unusual and exciting event: our annual global forum to discuss the most pressing issues affecting top business leaders around the world. Just a few of the brightest lights of the corporate and non-profit sectors joining us include IBM's Ginni Rometty, Darren Walker of the Ford Foundation, and Yang Yuanqing of Lenovo.

This year we are honored to have perhaps our most distinguished speaker ever at a Fortune conference: Pope Francis. In fact, we will be his guests at the Vatican tomorrow. The Pope asked us to convene a group of business leaders so they could assist him in one of his core missions, alleviating global poverty. Our seemingly counterintuitive task is to ask a cohort of elite executives who typically devote their time and resources to making money to suggest how those with the least can get just a little bit more.

Technology will play an important role in our discussions. In fact, later today I will host a working group that will explore how technology and innovation can boost employment for those who need it most.

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It is a topic that giant companies like Google goog and Facebook fb already focus on, partly out of self-interest and partly just because it is the right thing to do. That may well be a theme of our conference. Never has it been truer than in this time of global political turmoil that businesses can't thrive if consumers, current and future, aren't prospering too.

The working group I'm hosting will ask attendees to offer their suggestions for how to solve these problems. James Manyika of the McKinsey Global Institute, the giant consultant's in-house think tank, has offered a few starting points for our discussion, which he will publish in full at the conference. They include some familiar goals: improving education, teaching technology skills, investing in digital infrastructure for all, and so on.

Our goal will be to turn these broad themes into concrete proposals that can affect people's lives.

]]>http://fortune.com/2016/12/02/pope-francis-global-forum-poverty/feed/0Pope Francis 2016Adam Lashinsky, Sr. Editor at LargeHow Entrepreneur Leila Janah Is Working to Transform the Caregiving Industryhttp://fortune.com/2016/12/02/care-com-leila-janah-sama/
http://fortune.com/2016/12/02/care-com-leila-janah-sama/#respondFri, 02 Dec 2016 11:24:57 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=1872661]]>Leila Janah is founder of what she describes as one of Silicon Valley’s few “intentionally” non-profit companies.

The organization she founded, Sama, is a tech platform that connects impoverished people with large corporations like Google, LinkedIn, and Microsoft to complete digital projects.

She started the company eight years ago, and Janah told the Fortune-Time Global Forum in Rome on Friday that its latest effort in the United States is aimed at “formalizing” informal work. In the past, Sama has helped connect low-income Americans with so-called gig economy jobs like driving for Uber or shopping for Instacart. Now, it’s preparing to launch a partnership with Care.com, a job site for caregivers, to create a “care institute.” The program will train low-income people to be caregivers--a service that’s offered by few, if any, state or federal entities.

Janah, who was named one of Fortune‘s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs in 2013, said part of the idea behind the care institute is to give caregivers “reputational equity.” Many workers in the caregiving industry--along with gig economy workers and day laborers--lack a formal track record of their on-the-job performance. White collar workers have benefited from reputational equity for generations through performance reviews and, more recently, networking sites like LinkedIn. But if you’re a day laborer who does good work on Monday, your performance is “zeroed out” on Tuesday, she said.

Fortune assistant managing editor Adam Lashinsky asked Janah if the kinds of jobs Sama is helping facilitate--driving for Uber or image tagging for large technology companies--are of high enough quality. In answering, Janah referenced some individual cases of workers using such jobs to pull themselves out of poverty. “Digital work,” she said, “is a stepping stone into new economy jobs: it exposes [low-income people] to the internet and the knowledge economy.”

According to Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua, the tech mogul offered to fund the education of his lookalike from elementary school to college, winning headlines for his purported generosity. However, a spokesperson from Alibaba baba on Tuesday denied the reports.

Xinhuareported that Fan Xiaoqin, a little boy from China’s Jiangxi province, was dubbed “mini Jack Ma” in 2014, when photos of him were taken by someone in his village and circulated online bearing a close resemblance to the tech giant’s younger self. “The boy soon became a cyber-celebrity and his plight has moved many,” the agency reported. “Ma was impressed with the look-alike.”

Xinhua reported that Alibaba had released a statement on Sunday confirming Ma’s commitment, saying: “To fund one child’s education is easy, but in order to help millions of poor children, more resources need to be used.”

For more on Alibaba, watch Fortune’s video:

Jack Ma himself did not come from wealthy means. He began his career as an English teacher and translator and went through a series of job rejections early in his career, including a rejection from KFC, before founding Alibaba Online in 1999.

Since then, Ma, one of China’s richest men, has appeared on TIME’s 100 most influential people list, and by some estimates, has a net worth of more than $30 billion.

]]>http://fortune.com/2016/11/15/alibaba-jack-ma-lookalike-mini-ma/feed/0Computing Coference 2016 Held In Hangzhoutparmar123Chinese State Firms Pledge $1.8 Billion to Fight Povertyhttp://fortune.com/2016/10/18/china-investment-fund-poverty/
http://fortune.com/2016/10/18/china-investment-fund-poverty/#respondTue, 18 Oct 2016 09:12:11 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=1830925]]>A group of 51 enterprises run by the Chinese central government has launched a 12.2 billion yuan ($1.83 billion) fund to invest in the country’s poorest regions, as part of China’s strategic plan to use market forces in the fight against poverty.

Firms like the Three Gorges Project Corporation, the State Grid Corporation and the State Development and Investment Corporation will gradually increase the fund to 100 billion yuan, the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) said on Monday on its website (http://www.sasac.gov.cn).

According to the official Xinhua news agency, 70 million people still live on incomes of less than 2,300 yuan per year, which is China’s official poverty line. China aims to reduce that number by 10 million a year starting from 2016.

Xinhua said the fund will invest in resource exploitation, the construction of industrial parks and urbanization in China’s poorest regions.

It said priority regions included ethnic minority and border areas as well as old “revolutionary bases” of the Chinese Communist Party.

China is in the middle of a sweeping reform program designed to rejuvenate its lumbering state sector and create industrial champions capable of competing internationally.

But the government and the Communist Party have delivered mixed messages to the country’s giant state firms, saying they should be more responsive to the market while at the same time fulfilling their social and political responsibilities.

For more on China, watch Fortune’s video:

At a meeting earlier this month, President Xi Jinping told heads of state-owned firms that the Party would continue to play a leadership role in the reform of the state sector.

He described China’s state owned enterprises as “the most dependable support for the party and the state” and an important force behind the party’s efforts to “win many more historical victories,” according to an account of the meeting published by SASAC.

]]>http://fortune.com/2016/10/18/china-investment-fund-poverty/feed/0A man begs on a street as a woman passestohm235Millions of Americans Climbed Out of Poverty Last Yearhttp://fortune.com/2016/09/26/poverty/
http://fortune.com/2016/09/26/poverty/#respondMon, 26 Sep 2016 21:06:53 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=1808213]]>It’s never a good time to be poor, but 2015 was one of the best in recent memory according to one measure.

According to data released by the Census Department earlier this month, the official poverty rate in America declined by 1.2% to 13.5%, with 43.1 million people in poverty, 3.5 million fewer than in 2014. That’s the largest decrease in the poverty rate since 2009.

The main driver of this phenomenon was the falling unemployment rate, which helped push up wages for the poorest working Americans. That segment of the population was also helped by the fact that many state and local governments have increased their minimum wages of late, while many large private employers voluntarily lifted wage floors as well.

The extent of the poverty problem in the United States has received particular scrutiny of late both because it’s been just over 50 years since President Lyndon Johnson launched the war on poverty, and because during that time the official poverty rate has remained relatively flat.

But the Census Bureau’s supplemental measure of poverty, which takes into account the effect of government transfer programs, like Social Security Disability and Medicaid, shows that not only did poverty fall in the United States last year, it’s been on the steady decline as the welfare state has been strengthened over time.

But what is lost when discussing both these measures of poverty, is that the definition of poverty changes over time, regardless of which you use. The Census Bureau calculates the supplemental poverty threshold by measuring the typical American family’s bundle of consumption on “food, clothing, shelter, and utilities, and a small additional amount to allow for other needs (e.g., household supplies, personal care, nonwork-related transportation). Families that cannot afford the consumption bundle that is at 33% of the median American’s consumption bundle are considered impoverished.

This is a frustrating for those hope the war on poverty can at some point be won. Take for instance a scenario where everyone in the United States got 50% richer tomorrow, and adjusted their spending accordingly. The Census’ measure of poverty would not change, since it’s poverty threshold is relative to the median family’s consumption

It’s understandable why we have to in part rely on relative statistics. There is no absolute definition of poverty--Americans definition of it is bound to change over time. But for devotees of small government, it is understandably frustrating that this strategy for measuring poverty likely means that poverty will never be conquered, and that these measurements can always be used to justify more government expenditure.

]]>http://fortune.com/2016/09/26/poverty/feed/0Christian Bowery Mission Delivers Outreach Food Pantry To Brooklyn Familieschristopherrmatthewsgrowthhhincome_14_15screen-shot-2016-09-26-at-1-23-48-pmRio’s Legacy: a Highway Where Games Buses and Local Anger Collidehttp://fortune.com/2016/08/13/transolimpica-highway-rio-favela/
http://fortune.com/2016/08/13/transolimpica-highway-rio-favela/#respondSat, 13 Aug 2016 16:25:28 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=1766940]]>Ester Silva curses the Olympic Games as another bus rumbles over a new elevated highway that passes by her slum in Rio de Janeiro, sending a tremor through her brittle brick house.

“That road ripped our little community in two,” said Silva, 61, who has run a snack shop for 16 years from her home, gesturing up at a stretch of highway where an official Games bus was hit with stones this week as it traveled between venues.

“My home is crumbling, all for an Olympics that is not being put on for us poor, yet we are the ones paying the highest price,” she added, pointing out large patches of plaster that have fallen away from her ceiling and deep cracks in the walls.

The 26-km (16-mile), six-lane highway was completed just ahead of the Games and connects the main Olympic Park and a cluster of other Games venues. The government described it as a Games legacy for western Rio, promising to use it as a major bus route for the area’s many poor communities.

A total of 368 families were relocated to make way for the Transolimpica BRT highway, and residents say the demolition of those homes and the construction works, just meters from their front doors in many cases, caused serious structural problems.

At least three Olympic buses have been hit by projectiles while speeding along a dedicated lane in recent days, a senior security source said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.

One bus was carrying a dozen journalists on Tuesday night when two of its windows were shattered by what some on board swore was gunfire but authorities later concluded were stones, likely shot at the bus by powerful slingshots.

Maria, 71, waits for costumers at her kiosk next to the Transolimpica BRT, an express road built through a shantytown to join the Rio 2016 Olympic venues of Deodoro and Barra da Tijuca, in the Vila Uniao favela of Rio de Janeiro, August 12, 2016. REUTERS/Nacho DoceNACHO DOCE

In interviews with more than 15 residents and community leaders of Vila Uniao, none said they heard any gunfire when the media bus was hit. But all said they would not be surprised if the buses were targeted by rocks slung by young men in the community, acts denounced by the residents.

“We’re an activist community, we’ve been fighting against the forced destruction of our homes for years,” said Maria do Socorro, a 45-year-old beautician in the favela.

“If we wanted to protest, you would know it. We would barricade that road with burning tires.”

For more on the Olympics, watch:

The residents of Vila Uniao, which is just 2 km (a mile) from the newly built Olympic Village, are demanding that the city help repair the slum’s 900 remaining homes, mostly tall, narrow terraces made from weak, locally made bricks.

They also want the city to meet a promise to provide basic sanitation to the community. All its household waste flows into a putrid stream which regularly overflows during Rio’s rainy season, sending raw sewage into homes and streets.

The Rio mayor’s office strongly defends the BRT highway as desperately needed public transport for the poorest communities of western Rio. “It’s an important legacy for those who use buses daily,” the mayor’s office said in an emailed statement.

Critics say Transolimpica BRT highway, and other new highways built ahead of the Games, are inefficient modes of transport and point out that all of them run to the wealthy Barra neighborhood, home to the Olympic Park.

Barra is also the home turf of Mayor Eduardo Paes, who began his political career there and counts on it for strong support.

The University of Zurich’s Christopher Gaffney, who has studied the impact of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games on Brazil, said the new highways were “retrograde”. He said it would have been better to expand Rio’s metro system to densely populated areas in the west and other needy areas.The government instead built an extension of the metro network linking the wealthy Ipanema neighborhood to Barra.

Watchdog groups say about 20,000 families have been relocated since late 2009 for Olympic and World Cup works and legacy projects. The mayor’s office says 15,000 of them were moved because they lived in high-risk areas in danger of mainly mudslides and floods and does not consider them Games-related relocations.

“Funny how none of the rich areas in Rio are high risk, nor were the wealthy forced to leave communities where they had spent their whole lives,” said Socorro, the beautician.

“Why is it the poor always pay the price for what the government calls the advances that Rio needs?”

]]>http://fortune.com/2016/08/13/transolimpica-highway-rio-favela/feed/0Buses cross a bridge of the Transolimpica BRT in Rio de JaneiroemmieodeaMaria waits for customers next to the Transolimpica BRT in Rio de JaneiroSwiss Voters Reject ‘Money for Nothing’ Income Planhttp://fortune.com/2016/06/05/swiss-money-for-nothing-plan/
http://fortune.com/2016/06/05/swiss-money-for-nothing-plan/#respondSun, 05 Jun 2016 13:21:17 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=1685917]]>Swiss voters rejected by a wide margin on Sunday a proposal to introduce a guaranteed basic income for everyone living in the wealthy country after an uneasy debate about the future of work at a time of increasing automation.

Supporters had said introducing a monthly income of 2,500 Swiss francs ($2,563) per adult and 625 francs per child under 18 no matter how much they work would promote human dignity and public service.

Opponents, including the government, said it would cost too much and weaken the economy.

Projections by the GFS polling outfit for Swiss broadcaster SRF showed nearly four out of five voters opposed the bold social experiment launched by Basel cafe owner Daniel Haeni and allies in a vote under the Swiss system of direct democracy.

Haeni acknowledged defeat but claimed a moral victory.

“As a businessman I am a realist and had reckoned with 15% support, now it looks like more than 20% or maybe even 25%. I find that fabulous and sensational,” he told SRF.

“When I see the media interest, from abroad as well, then I say we are setting a trend.”

Conservative Switzerland is the first country to hold a national referendum on an unconditional basic income, but others including Finland are examining similar plans as societies ponder a world in which robots replace humans in the workforce.

Olivier, a 26-year-old carpenter who works on construction sites and runs a small business where he designs and builds furniture, said he voted “yes” to the initiative.

“For me it would be a great opportunity to put my focus on my passion and not go to work just for a living,” he said.

For more on wages and labor, watch:

Champions of the plan had painted just such a future in a poster bigger than a soccer field asking “What would you do if your income was secure?” They had also marched as robots down Zurich’s high street and had handed out free 10-franc notes.

A Bern man who gave his name only as Stephan said he supported the idea as a “sustainable solution for society”.

“I think people will go on working because it is a human need to be useful, to do meaningful action. In fact, I have the impression that people would be even more productive if they are productive by themselves instead of being obliged to be productive,” he said.

A woman named Meleanie said she reluctantly voted “no”.

“I find that it is a real danger that once people just get their basic needs covered society doesn’t feel responsible anymore to look after the ones who can’t really handle the situation on their own”, she said.

An advanced social safety net already supports people who cannot pay themselves for their livelihood. Fewer than seven percent of people lived in poverty in 2014, official data show.

In a separate vote on Sunday, Swiss voters also clearly rejected a proposal to require state-controlled companies, such as Swisscom, not to seek to make a profit.

The government had warned that accepting the initiative would hurt the companies’ competitiveness and could lead to higher taxes.

]]>http://fortune.com/2016/06/05/swiss-money-for-nothing-plan/feed/0SWITZERLAND-FLAGemmieodeaMisery Tourists: How the Wealthy Learn What It’s Like to Be Poorhttp://fortune.com/2016/06/01/poverty-simulation-camps/
http://fortune.com/2016/06/01/poverty-simulation-camps/#respondWed, 01 Jun 2016 15:25:34 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=1632975]]>Tiela Chalmers, an accomplished lawyer, went to her first “poverty simulation” workshop kit when she was working for a group that helped domestic violence victims. Assigned an identity -- married grandmother raising two grandkids -- she was directed to navigate a series of challenges that actual poor people face, such as trying to live on a budget (frequently $300 to $400 a month in such simulations), scraping together money for utilities and children’s eyeglasses, and dealing with health issues without losing hours at work (and income).

She quickly found the logistics overwhelming. “I just could not make ends meet and the kids’ needs came last,” she said, adding she could see why it would lead to alcohol abuse. “Part of what struck me was that there was no relief.”

Now the CEO and general counsel for the Alameda County Bar Association and Volunteer Legal Services Corporation, Chalmers often runs such simulations for other lawyers and professionals. What was done with little attention in the past has become a small cottage industry, as the privileged try to understand at least a bit of what the poor and refugees face. The World Economic Forum annual January meeting, where the business and political elite gather in Davos, has held a refugee simulation for the last eight years.

Participants wait in their tents at ‘nighttime’ in the camp at A Day in the Life of a Refugee. (C) David McIntyre/Crossroads Foundation Ltd.

Advocates say the goal is to encourage the affluent to use their time, money and influence to help find solutions. But critics point to a darker side, where participants can become what you might call misery tourists, collecting experiences and assuaging discomfort by having now done their part. The Singapore Island Country Club, for instance, was recently criticized when it planned a poverty simulation for its club members; it costs $21,000 a year to belong to the club. Some people accused the club of “trying to humiliate the poor” and called the undertaking an “exercise in futility.” The organizers postponed the event.

Late last year, two non-profits, Giving What We Can, and Empathy Action, faced a sharp backlash when they planned to host a poverty simulation at Clare College, which is part of the elite University of Cambridge in the U.K. The organizers said they would turn "Clare College cellars into a run-down, oppressive slum” and create an event that was characterized as being “fun and insightful,” and participants were invited to stay "afterwards for a drink in the bar."

Nungari Mwangi, co-president of the African Society at Cambridge, took to Facebook to blast the event as “ignorant” and a “vain attempt to appropriate the struggles of the world's poor as a game, over drinks in the most privileged of settings.” Others attacked it on Twitter.

Fighting in the camp puts one ‘refugee’ in the camp prison, at A Day in the Life of a Refugee. (C) David McIntyre/Crossroads Foundation Ltd.

[After the uproar, Giving What We Can released a statement, noting the Cambridge event was organized by “one of our student groups” without the knowledge or involvement of Giving What We Can leadership. “The information provided to us about the event shows that it was clearly insensitive and completely inappropriate. We were unaware that the event was going to take place, but to the extent that it was planned by a student group with a connection to us, we sincerely and unreservedly apologise.”

And yet, many of these poverty simulation workshops have been going on for years, without controversy. Every year for the last 12 years, Refugee Norway has put some 5,000 Norwegian teenagers through a weekend of simulated refugee experiences, including sleep deprivation, exhaustion, and hunger.

This year, some 500 participants at Davos went through what journalist Jay Yarow called a “terrifying” refugee simulation with bullying, explosions, and threatening people carrying guns. Rose Beaumont, group head of communications at MasterCard Europe was one of the attendees. She wrote a in blog post that she was a bit cynical in advance, but found that gaining sympathy and understanding for actually refugees came more easily than she thought as she “cowered from explosion, was crammed into basic tents with strangers and was stripped of my dignity and identity.”

Soldiers’ booty, after confiscating valuables from participants at the border crossing in A Day in the Life of a Refugee.David McIntyre/Crossroads Foundation Ltd.

Crossroads Foundation, a humanitarian aid and development organization that puts on the Davos simulation, spends $100,000 to bring in the volunteer staff and actors, set up the space, and run the event. There’s no fundraising; the goal is far bigger than raising money.

“[W]e began to realize that mere education alone does not always result in change,” Crossroads spokesperson David Begbie told Fortune. And if you want change, why not influence those who can make it in a big way? “I have seen multiple people leave their jobs and go into micro finance and the relief sector [after a simulation].”

The poverty simulation kit that Chalmers uses was developed by the Missouri Association for Community Action; MACA sells the kit for $2,000 and organizations can reuse it. MACA claims that the experience sometimes leads to actionable insights. Some hospitals learned that poor patients might arrive at the emergency room “and didn’t have a way to get home,” MACA Executive Director Heather Lockard said. Hospital management began to provide public transportation passes for the patients.

“You can’t know [the experience] unless you live it day in and day out,” said Hilarie Atkisson, director of corporate social responsibility and pro-bono counsel at law firm Fenwick & West, who was in an MACA simulation in January. “But any kind of awareness can help facilitate change in a small way.”

Iowa’s Drake University pharmacy program requires second-year students to do the same simulation. Many of the patients they will see are poor. “We want to make sure our students are approaching that work from a sensitive lens,” said Renee Sedlacek, director of community engaged learning.

Participants queue for food rations in the camp. (C) David McIntyre/Crossroads Foundation Ltd.

And yet, Hamline student paper columnist Andy Stec wrote that some participants’ Facebook posts “highlighted how ‘depressing’ and inconvenient they found being homeless,” while posting pictures of their experience. The trip had been just that -- something over and done with.

If participants treat such events as bucket list items that are fodder for later stories, the experience can turn into ego gratification. But, in the meantime, those who put them on will continue to do so, rolling the dice for a better outcome.

The following is a sampling of poverty and refugee simulation programs.

Cross Purpose

Cost: $120 per personLocation: Denver, ColoradoDescription: A weekend “poverty simulation” or “refugee simulation.” Dr. Jeff Cook leads weekend simulations -- four poverty and two refugee -- a year. In the poverty simulation, participants start at a thrift store, are allowed to spend only $4 on clothing for the weekend, and then experience hunger, lack of sleep, being out in the cold, panhandling for food money, and spending time working with groups that aid the homeless. The refugee simulation takes place on a 400-acre farm in which participants are disoriented, are harassed and chased by groups, face challenges of finding food and shelter, and then are forced to fill out asylum forms in a language they don’t understand.
Quote: “I’m surprised at how deeply moved people are,” Cook said. “They say, ‘I had no idea, I had no idea.’ The most surprising to them is to find out how difficult it is to be poor.”

Refugee Norway

Cost: EUR60 (approximately $68)Location: A former military base near OsloDescription: About 5,000 teenagers a year go through a weekend simulated asylum journey to fulfill part of a religious or civil confirmation process. Carrying only backpacks, sleeping bags, and warm jackets, they receive foreign identities, are forced to march through the night, and undergo hunger and sleep deprivation. At the end of the program they learn that only a few of them would receive asylum and that the rest would have to return to their home countries.
Quote: “We have an internet-based evaluation that all participants can answer,” said Deputy CEO Lasse Moen S?rensen. “A great deal of them do answer and, based on their statements, it is clear that the vast majority of them report to have gained more interest and sympathy for refugees and their situation.”

World Relief Spokane

Cost: $30 per personLocation: Spokane, WashingtonDescription: Participants in the three-hour simulation memorize their biographies and then proceed through a series of steps including a visit with immigration officials, a refugee feeding station, a medical clinic, and a language acquisition class and must pass through interviews at each stop.Quote: “Since the program began in 2007, hundreds of students, churches, schools, and non-profit organizations have participated in this life-changing experience that has transformed their global perspective,” the organization’s website states.

Ohio Association of Foodbanks

Cost: Priced by group from a “modest” fee to $1,500, depending on the group size, travel time, and number of staff needed for the simulation and additional training.Location: OhioDescription: Produce group simulations based on the Missouri Association for Community Action kit.Quote: “The reactions of participants vary widely,” said executive director Lisa Hamler-Fugitt. “For those who have no concept of the struggle and grinding realities of life in poverty, it’s a sobering and shocking experience, a wake-up call of how hard it is and hopefully it changes their hearts and minds.”

Mission Waco Mission World

Cost: $65 per personLocation: Waco, TexasDescription: The religious organization offers weekend simulations for groups that can include people from 14 through adult. Changing into thrift shop outfits, they spend the weekend without money, shelter, or hot water. Participants must find ways to get food (without dumpster diving or begging), interview someone who is homeless, undertake a scavenger hunt, and sleep outside.Quote: “The poverty simulation weekend's design helps participants ‘feel’ the realities of hopelessness, hunger, inadequate sleep and frustrating choices,” wrote executive director and co-founder Jimmy Dorrell.

Update: This story was updated to include a 2015 statement from Giving What We Can about the Clare College event. Giving What We Can had disavowed the event as insensitive and stressed at the time that it was organized by a student group.

]]>http://fortune.com/2016/06/01/poverty-simulation-camps/feed/024259654369_5ef6221f6f_kebshermanParticipants wait in their tents at 'nighttime' in the camp at A Day in the Life of a Refugee. Fighting in the camp puts one 'refugee' in the camp prison, at A Day in the Life of a Refugee.Soldiers' booty, after confiscating valuables from participants at the border crossing in A Day in the Life of a Refugee.Four in Ten Detroit Residents Lack Broadband Internet Accesshttp://fortune.com/2016/05/23/detroit-broadband-access/
http://fortune.com/2016/05/23/detroit-broadband-access/#respondMon, 23 May 2016 14:53:26 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=1667893]]>Detroit is experiencing a major issue that is impacting the city’s economy, according to a new report.

A shockingly large number of Detroit’s citizens--40%--do not have broadband access to the Internet despite attempts by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make it more readily available across the United States, The New York Timesreported on Monday. Detroit’s Internet access issues are the highest of any major city in the U.S., the Times adds, citing data from the FCC.

Internet availability has been cited as one a critical component in a person’s ability to succeed. Indeed, Facebook FB and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg have on countless occasions talked about the so-called “digital divide,” which enables those with Internet access to gain an advantage over those without it. Through Free Basics, a service Facebook has spearheaded, the company is trying to bring people online in emerging markets where Internet access isn’t readily available. The company has argued that its efforts help people improve their businesses, get out of poverty, and find jobs.

The FCC has similarly argued that connectivity is critical to future prosperity. In 2010, the agency announced the National Broadband Plan, which aims at connecting the millions of people around the U.S. that don’t have fast Internet service. The plan also includes getting faster networks into users’ homes. Ultimately, the agency says, the effort should help “stimulate economic growth, spur job creation, and boost America’s capabilities in education, health care, homeland security and more.”

While much of the FCC’s plan has focused on connecting rural areas of the U.S., the Times report suggests that the issue is occurring in urban areas and is especially acute in Detroit.

Indeed, Detroit has faced several problems over the last several years, due in large part to the troubled automotive industry. While unemployment has rebounded somewhat, falling to 11% in February, it’s still substantially higher than the national average. In certain neighborhoods across the city, unemployment is double that figure, according to the Times.

Having Internet access, then, is critical. Speaking to Detroit officials, the Times found that offering Internet access to residents can help them find jobs and cut down on the unemployment problem. With poverty high and people out of work, however, paying for Internet access isn’t possible.

The next move, therefore, might be publicly provided free Wi-Fi hotspots. Indeed, in many places, including New York City and other major cities, funding is available to build free Wi-Fi hotspots for residents. While Detroit has already started that effort, funding is minimal, leaving it needing more cash to bring connectivity to other areas.

For more about about broadband, watch:

For its part, the FCC has initiated its own nationwide plan to deliver affordable connectivity to underserved areas. However, how that will impact Detroit and help those who are out of work and might need Internet connectivity to help them find a job, is unknown.

The FCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

]]>http://fortune.com/2016/05/23/detroit-broadband-access/feed/0Detroit Area Economy Worsens As Big Three Automakers Face Dire CrisisdreisingerWorld To Miss Internet Access Targets ‘By A Mile’ At Current Pacehttp://fortune.com/2016/02/21/online-access-goal/
http://fortune.com/2016/02/21/online-access-goal/#respondMon, 22 Feb 2016 00:01:02 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=1556765]]>The United Nations agreed last year that everyone, even in the least developed countries, should have Internet access by 2020. However, according to a study by the Alliance For Affordable Internet (A4AI), the world is currently likely to miss that target.

By how much? More than two decades. According to A4AI, whose members range from Google GOOG and Facebook FB to the World Wide Web Foundation and several governments, universal access will only become a thing in 2042, if we keep going at the pace we’re going.

Facebook to help bring Internet access to Sub-Saharan Africa:

Here’s what the alliance said in its report, released at the start of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona:

Without urgent reform, in 2020 we will see just 16% of people in the world's poorest countries, and 53% of the world as a whole, connected. We won't just miss the target, we'll miss by a mile. This connectivity lag will undermine global development across the board, contributing to lost opportunities for economic growth and denying hundreds of millions access to online education, health services, political voice, and much, much more.

The current target here is for people to be able to get online for less than 5% of average incomes.

According to A4AI, income inequality is a big part of the problem -- technically, just under half the countries covered in its report meet the target overall, but far fewer (nine out of 51) meet it for the bottom 20% of income earners. The gender wage gap means women are particularly unlikely to get online in much of the world.

The report recommends reforming tax and patent regimes to bring down the cost of phones (a pretty major factor in all this), increasing the available of public, subsidized Internet access and setting new targets to close the digital gender divide.

What’s more, the alliance wants a new, more ambitious affordability target: For people in even the poorest countries to be able to get 1GB of data each month for 2% or less of their average monthly income.

“This report must serve as a wake-up call to policymakers, business leaders and civil society everywhere,” said A4AI executive director Sonia Jorge in a statement. “If we are serious about achieving universal access by 2020, we need to condense almost 30 years worth of work into the next five years.”

]]>http://fortune.com/2016/02/21/online-access-goal/feed/0uganda-201412-sesame 3superglazeThis City is Giving Jobs to Homeless Peoplehttp://fortune.com/2015/12/08/albuquerque-homeless-jobs/
http://fortune.com/2015/12/08/albuquerque-homeless-jobs/#respondTue, 08 Dec 2015 16:14:34 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=1467635]]>A new initiative in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is reimagining the way a city can help its homeless population by giving up to ten panhandlers each day a job.

The program, which began in September, recruits the homeless through a roving van and brings those interested to a blighted part of the city for a day of clean-up work. Workers get $9 per hour, and a free lunch, according to The New York Times. It’s part of a larger program in Albuquerque that aims to fight a growing homelessness epidemic with compassion rather than iron-fisted bans on panhandling.

Albuquerque has also invested in signs on street corners that tell panhandlers how to seek help and encourage drivers to donate to local services rather than to individuals, according to Governing.

"If we can get your confidence up a little, get a few dollars in your pocket, get you stabilized to the point where you want to reach out for services, whether the mental health services or substance abuse services -- that's the upward spiral that I'm looking for,” Mayor Richard J. Berry, who has made homelessness one of his key issues, told the Times.

Albuquerque’s new approach to homelessness comes in the wake of the 2014 death of James Boyd, a schizophrenic homeless man who was shot by police. Boyd’s family, which received a $5 million settlement from the city, has donated part of the funds to homelessness outreach programs, according to the Times.

]]>http://fortune.com/2015/12/08/albuquerque-homeless-jobs/feed/0Panhandleing In CincinnaticlairegrodenFacebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, wife opening a private schoolhttp://fortune.com/2015/10/22/facebook-zuckerberg-school/
http://fortune.com/2015/10/22/facebook-zuckerberg-school/#respondThu, 22 Oct 2015 22:31:41 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=1383220]]>Facebook's FB CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, plan to open a private comprehensive preschool and K-8 school linked to health services for children and families in East Palo Alto, Calif., the San Jose Mercury News reported Thursday.

The school, which will open in August, comes from Chan’s passion to alleviate the effects of poverty on children, the newspaper reported--something she has witnessed "while tutoring in inner-city Boston and now working as a pediatrician at San Francisco General Hospital."

The school will target the most disadvantaged residents of East Palo Alto and eastern Menlo Park, the paper said.

According to the report:

The investment, channeled through the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, is sizable. When the school is fully built, it will be able to serve 700 children plus their families — that’s one-quarter larger than the entire Luther Burbank School District in San Jose, which runs on an annual budget of $4.9 million.

Deaton is an optimist. His reading of history, as laid out in his magnum opus (cited above), suggests one of progress. He argues that poverty, death, and isolation are in global decline; in his view, there has never been, on the whole, a better time to be alive.

Why Deaton? According to the selection committee, Deaton earned the award for three major contributions to the field. First, for his development of a tool in the ’80s--the Almost Ideal Demand System--which models how consumers spend their money, or “how the demand for each good depends on the prices of all goods on individual incomes.” Second, for his research in the ’90s, which countered prevailing macroeconomic theories of consumption--or consumer spending--by pointing out the flaws of aggregate data. (Individual data is just as key, he argued.) And third, for his pioneering use of household surveys to collect more accurate, empirical, individualized economic data in developing countries.

Deaton has every reason to be optimistic, of course. He is an eminent man of letters with a cushy gig at an Ivy League institution. He was born in the developed world and has won no small number of awards, fellowships, and honorary degrees, throughout his distinguished career. To that list, he may now add that he is the proud owner of a coveted piece of Swedish bling, so to speak. Who wouldn’t he be optimistic given those laurels?

Deaton is the first to acknowledge that inequalities exist. There is disease, famine, war. Amid his acceptance of the award, he cited rising inequality and climate change as troublesome trends. Generally speaking, however, the proponent of education and a critic of foreign aid contends that the data show cause to be sanguine. Life expectancy is up. Destitution, down. Economic development--depending where you look--climbing apace.

“I do foresee a decrease [in poverty]. We’ve seen a remarkable decrease over the past 20 years, and I do forecast that will continue,” Deaton said after receiving the prize, reports CNN Money. “But I don’t want to sound like a blind optimist.”

To summarize the man’s life’s work, as his Panglossian book blurb asserts: “The world is a better place than it used to be.”

]]>http://fortune.com/2015/10/12/angus-deaton-economics-nobel-prize/feed/0SWEDEN-NOBEL-ECONOMICSrhhackettfortuneWorld Bank says extreme poverty will fall below 10%http://fortune.com/2015/10/05/world-bank-poverty-end/
http://fortune.com/2015/10/05/world-bank-poverty-end/#respondMon, 05 Oct 2015 13:51:59 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=1349798]]>By the end of 2015, less than 10% of the world’s population will be living in extreme poverty for the first time, according to a report issued by the World Bank.

"This is the best story in the world today. These projections show us that we are the first generation in human history that can end extreme poverty,'' said World Bank president Jim Yong Kim in a statement.

The World Bank revised their international poverty line from the previous figure of $1.25 a day to a new benchmark of $1.90 a day. This change was made to reflect new data on the differences in the cost of living across countries, while still preserving the real purchasing power of the previous line.

With this updated measure, the World Bank projects that global poverty will have fallen from 902 million people or 12.8% of the global population in 2012, to 702 million people, or 9.6% of the global population, this year.

This puts the World Bank on course to meet a historic goal of ending poverty by 2030. However, some key challenges remain, including the shifting nature of poverty: Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for half of the global poor, and some 12% are living in East Asia, with the World Bank noting that poverty is becoming more entrenched in conflict-ridden countries and those that are too dependent on commodity exports.

This report comes after the 17 Sustainable Development Goals were agreed upon this year, which are a set of global targets that will set the development agenda for UN member states over the next 15 years. Ending poverty is front and center in the SDGs.

Almost 4 in 10 people in Detroit live in poverty, according to numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau Wednesday, making it the most impoverished big city in the U.S.

According to the Census, 39.3% of people in Detroit live below the poverty line (defined as $24,250 for a family of four). The city, which has struggled for decades following the loss of manufacturing and auto jobs, is the poorest in America with more than 300,000 people, followed by Cleveland (39.2%), Fresno, Calif., (30.5%), Memphis (29.8%), and Milwaukee (29%). But the city's rate has actually decreased from 2012, when it was 42.3%.

The poverty rate at a national level, however, declined slightly in 2014. Nationally, 15.5% of Americans live in poverty, down from 15.8% in 2013. Mississippi is the most impoverished state with 21.5% of residents living below the poverty line, followed by New Mexico (21.3%), Louisiana (19.8%), Alabama (19.3%) and Kentucky (19.1%).

And while Detroit is struggling, it's not the worst-off city in the U.S. If you compare cities with 65,000 or more people, the big loser is Youngstown, Ohio which, with its 40.7% rate of poverty, has never recovered from the loss of the steel industry decades ago.

]]>http://fortune.com/2015/09/17/detroit-poverty-rate/feed/0Detroit Area Economy Worsens As Big Three Automakers Face Dire Crisissolster25 times Pope Francis talked about moneyhttp://fortune.com/2015/09/14/pope-francis-capitalism-inequality/
http://fortune.com/2015/09/14/pope-francis-capitalism-inequality/#respondMon, 14 Sep 2015 18:25:31 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=1305549]]>Everyone’s favorite pope (sorry, Benedict) is making his first trip stateside next week and officials in the three cities hosting Pope Francis are already gearing up for huge crowds -- and a huge boost in tourism revenue.

Starting next Tuesday, Pope Francis will pass through Washington, D.C., New York City, and Philadelphia over the course of six days. The arrival of the so-called “people’s pope” -- with the subsequent increase in tourism, hotel and restaurant spending -- is expected to generate anywhere from $400 million to half a billion dollars in Philadelphia, while D.C. and New York should also see major tourism boosts.

In addition to the effect he can have on local economies simply by showing up, Pope Francis has also had plenty to say about matters of finance and economics during his papal reign. In honor of Pope Francis’ American visit, here arefive quotes from the head of the Catholic Church on issues such as the global economy, capitalism, and poverty.

In 2013, Pope Francis wrote a massive statement, called an apostolic exhortation, in which he decried what he called the “idolatry of money”:

“The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. The worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare their imbalances and, above all, their lack of real concern for human beings; man is reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption.”

From the same 2013 writing, on the theory of trickle-down economics:

“[S]ome people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacra-lized workings of the prevailing economic system.”

In a speech in Bolivia earlier this summer, the pope sounded off on a single-minded obsession with money. (His quoting of Saint Basil the Great resulted in a backlash, but Pope Francis defended his comments as following the tenets of the Catholic Church.):

“[B]ehind all this pain, death and destruction there is the stench of what Basil of Caesarea called ‘the dung of the devil’. An unfettered pursuit of money rules. The service of the common good is left behind. Once capital becomes an idol and guides people's decisions, once greed for money presides over the entire socioeconomic system, it ruins society, it condemns and enslaves men and women, it destroys human fraternity, it sets people against one another and, as we clearly see, it even puts at risk our common home.”

“Working for a just distribution of the fruits of the earth and human labor is not mere philanthropy. It is a moral obligation. For Christians, the responsibility is even greater: it is a commandment.”

Last year, a Fortune magazine story investigated the finances of the Vatican, the seat of the Catholic Church, and Pope Francis’ efforts to steer financial reform. From that article:

“‘When the administration is fat, it's unhealthy,’ he said. Francis wanted a leaner, more efficient Vatican administration that would be solidly ‘self-sustaining.’ That, he said, would free up more money for his charities.”

]]>http://fortune.com/2015/09/14/pope-francis-capitalism-inequality/feed/0VATICAN-RELIGION-POPE-GERMANYhuddlestontomEven the cheapest city is too expensive for a family on minimum wagehttp://fortune.com/2015/08/27/quality-of-life-incomes/
http://fortune.com/2015/08/27/quality-of-life-incomes/#respondThu, 27 Aug 2015 21:54:08 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=1272116]]>According to a new paper by the left-leaning think tank the Economic Policy Institute, most families subsiding on minimum-wage jobs would struggle to achieve a modest but secure quality of life, no matter where in the United States they reside.

In Morristown, Tenn., which EPI calculated as the cheapest city for a two-adult, two-child family, an annual family budget amounts to $49,114. In comparison, the federal poverty line for a two-adult, two-child family in 2014 was set at $24,008. Two adults working the federal minimum wage would bring home a total of $30,160 each year–above the poverty rate, but far below the amount needed for a holistic budget.

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., EPI found that a two-adult, two-child family has to shell out $106,493 a year. That’s even more than families in New York’s metro area, primarily due to high child care costs.

The report highlights the wide variation in living costs across the country–a diversity that is not accounted for in federal poverty standards.

EPI calculated the budget for families in more than 600 communities and regions by accounting for rent, food, health care, transportation, child care, other necessities and taxes. In the majority of locations, child care costs were higher than rent for two-child families.

]]>http://fortune.com/2015/08/27/quality-of-life-incomes/feed/0#G5002015 TescoclairegrodenUganda and the consequences of boom-bust farminghttp://fortune.com/2015/08/18/uganda-boom-bust-farming/
http://fortune.com/2015/08/18/uganda-boom-bust-farming/#respondTue, 18 Aug 2015 15:42:56 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=1251936]]>"Uganda is a land of difficulties," said Vicky Alobo. "Big and small."

Alobo is a farmer in northern Uganda's Ywaya village.

"There are caterpillars and aphids and other pests," she said, counting on her fingers. "And weeds like star grass. We lack tools and pesticides. There is no capital, so we cannot get loans."

Nearby, a neighbor tended neatly planted rows of beans. Alobo, 32, pointed to the grass-thatched hut where she lives with her four children.

The roads are bad, she went on. In the rainy season, they are routinely washed out, driving up the costs of supplies. And a shortage of oxen and tractors condemns many families to tilling the soil manually - by hoe, if they're lucky, or by sticks and hands if they're not.

While scratching out a meager living, many hope to somehow make enough to pay school fees or build a house with a sheet-metal roof.

"That is the dream," Alobo said. "But it can be very hard to get ahead."

Africa Rising?

When President Barack Obama wrapped up his trip to Africa in late July, he cited the continent's economic promise. "Africa is on the move" he said. "A new Africa is emerging."

Nevertheless, in a speech broadcast across the continent, the President noted that African growth is failing to keep pace. Africa's population is expected to double to 2.4 billion by 2050, and economic growth, while brisk in some areas, is unlikely to satisfy growing demand for work.

"Africa will need to generate millions more jobs than it is doing now," President Obama said.

Uganda's uneven economic performance is a case in point. While southern Uganda has posted rapid growth in recent years, in the rural north, poverty and malnutrition are widespread. In Ywaya village, as throughout the north, most languish in extreme poverty, which the World Bank defines as living on less than $1.25 a day.

This is not for lack of assistance. From 2010 to 2012, U.S. economic aid alone totaled more than $1.1 billion.

A growing chorus is suggesting that Africa does not need any more aid. One-off handouts risk increasing the dependency of recipients and can choke off locally sourced commercial activity.

Instead, some argue public money should be used to leverage private sector know-how and investment.

In some cases, this appears to be happening. In Uganda, programs funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Department of Agriculture aim to spark commercial activity and help entrepreneurs get off the ground. Rather than give away grants and ploughs, for instance, aid organizations are connecting local farmers with larger businesses selling pesticides, tools, and improved seeds, which are disease- and drought-resistant. By introducing tillage companies to farmers in distant villages, tractors-for-hire are available to till fields, boosting crop yields. And loan-guarantee programs encourage banks and other financial institutions wary of issuing loans to poor farmers with little collateral to start extending credit.

According to farmers in Ywaya, these investments are revolutionizing their agricultural business. They are getting access to bank loans, investing in their farms, and reaping better harvests. And as the market matures, other large private sector players are starting to join.

"We'd always been interested in doing business in these communities, but we didn't have any entry points," said Gerard Sands, chief financial officer of GADCO, a large agro exporter.

In the past, Sands said, the market was too disorganized, the harvest quality too poor, and there was no one who could aggregate supplies from thousands of individual small farmers to make purchasing attractive to large commercial buyers.

In 2009, high global sesame prices encouraged GADCO to partner with Mercy Corps, a global humanitarian aid agency working on U.S.-sponsored development programs in Uganda, to start buying sesame from agricultural communities in the north. (Full Disclosure: I work for Mercy Corps.) GADCO's entry in the market helped spark a regional sesame boom. Local sesame prices doubled. Thousands of farmers like Vicky Alobo registered with GADCO to sell sesame. Other agro companies entered the market and productivity rose. In communities throughout the north, the average farm size grew from two acres to six-and-a-half. Today, sesame seeds grown in rural Uganda are found on buns in Germany and the Netherlands.

According to analysis by Mercy Corps, daily incomes for an estimated 36,000 families grew by more than 80%, from just over a dollar to two dollars a day, well above the World Bank's extreme poverty line.

But rising incomes have had some adverse consequences. According to farmers in Ywaya, the extra income has fueled bad behavior: fights between spouses, alcoholism, a spike in violent crime. Meanwhile, in many places, farming practices are environmentally unsustainable, exhausting the soil. This has led to itinerant planting: farmers move their fields every year, which, combined with expanding cultivation, is triggering land disputes.

Still, the worry that nags most is that the good times will end. The income boom in northern Uganda is largely on account of the sesame boom, and the turbine that has dragged incomes up could well drag them down again. A survey of farmers conducted by Mercy Corps in north-central Uganda found that sesame accounted for 83% of total agricultural sales in 2014, dwarfing all other crops.

And while local sesame prices jumped in prior years, this year they plunged by 40%. If prices continue to fall, farmers may find that they lack sufficient income-earning crops or, worse, that they have failed to grow enough food.

Cushioning the blow

In the face of this, aid groups need to be fleet of foot. A crop rotation system could preserve environmental resources and reduce land conflicts. Meanwhile, organizations like Mercy Corps are working to diversify cash crops that could reduce Ugandan farmers' dependence on sesame. Local and global demand for sunflower, Red Chilies, or Chia seeds, for instance, may provide a bulwark against a drop in sesame prices.

Encouraging farmers to save more could also help communities weather pricing fluctuations. The growth of local financial institutions creates an opening for agro companies like GADCO to directly deposit farmers' sales income to a bank account, rather than pay in cash, which is too easily frittered away.

The experience in northern Uganda shows that using market-oriented approaches can vastly improve the lives of those in the developing world. But economic growth can also expose people to new cycles of boom and bust, price and income fluctuations, and environmental degradation. For those living in poverty, the effects can be devastating.

The trick is to use public-private partnerships to promote growth sustainably and, when the inevitable busts come, cushion the landing so that the poorest don't end up worse off than where they started.

Keith Proctor is senior policy researcher at Mercy Crops and a visiting fellow at the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University.